Thursday, March 6, 2014

What's Old Is New Again

My parents are preparing for a move later this year and I've been slowly helping them go through all of the things that they have acquired over their 56 years of marriage. Some things get thrown away, some things get donated to charities, and other things are quickly grabbed by me to keep. One of the things that I recently took was this quilt that was made by my grandmother around 1960 (perhaps even a few years earlier). I think it has a bit of a "modern" look, very similar to today's graphic modern quilts.

The darker green patches seem to be some kind of wool or wool lookalike.

I remember my family using this quilt (actually, it's more of a summer throw because it has no batting; just two layers) many, many times while I was growing up. It was used on picnics and at the beach and has gone through the washing machine countless times.

There are all sorts of fabrics in it...even corduroy and some shiny, satin-like fabric.

Gray square is corduroy

Some of the pieces are made from two smaller pieces.

Of course, with all of that use, some fabric is starting to come apart, as you can see below...

And there has been some repair work done over the years by either my grandmother or mother...

The backing is plain muslin, plus some other unidentified fabric along the two sides, perhaps from old curtains. Very minimal quilting -- it's hard to see in the photo, but there are two vertical lines of quilting and two horizontal.

closeup of fabric on the back

I'm thinking of reproducing this quilt using solid cotton fabrics available today...who knows when I'll actually get around to doing it, but I like the idea. It will go on my "make someday" list.

1 comment:

This quilt brought back memories for me too. My mom picked up all of the leftover batting and fabrics from her sister who owned a custom drapery and slipcover business. She used all of those fabrics to piece quilts and even pieced all that batting together to use. That would have been the late 1950s through the early 1980s. We also used those quilts for picnics, building forts, etc. And she gave away lots of them. Nothing was wasted. Great utility pieces!! Thanks for sharing and sending me down memory lane myself.